Cityplace "Superblock" Now Being Decorated With Three Giant Pieces of Public Art

Tower II, one of three new pieces of public art going in around Cityplace

A Friend of Unfair Park asked this morning: "What's going on over at Cityplace? Looks like they're sinking a giant drill bit." Funny he should ask: Moments ago we got word that today's doings are related to the installation of three pieces of public art that begin at 7:30 this morning. Says the release, which was accompanied by the photo, this is the brainchild of Cityplace president Neal Sleeper, who says, "In a walkable urban neighborhood such as Cityplace, it is important to make sure that public art is part of the plan. You just have to have it."

The one you see here is by Venice, California-based Cliff Garten: a 35-foot-tall steel structure called Tower II, which went in the Oak Grove Avenue entrance. Two more are to follow: Elgin-based Maggie Sawyer's Synchronicity of Color Receptors, which will go near that trolley turntable, and Dallas-based Brad Goldberg's black-granite Watertable due to grace McKinney Avenue and Blackburn Street. Says the announcement, this was the idea all along for Cityplace:

Sleeper claims that in this case, installing public art was always in the plan, and it made sense to save it for the final and most important tract of land in the 20-year-long Cityplace development. In the early 1980s, Sleeper was one of a number of developers that art consultant Sharon Leeber took on a tour of famous sculptors' studios and homes around the country ... These sculptors included George Segal, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra.

"The small group of developers and landscape architects from Dallas were privileged to something that few across the U.S. have been exposed to," says Leeber. "It was this trip that helped form Neal Sleeper's vision of the Cityplace Superblock, and it was this vision that has led to the development of the public art site."